I'm late on my Christmas shopping (as usual ) and am currently trying to pick out my gift for my husband. He's a big beer person and ever since moving to San Diego, with it's wealth of microbreweries, he's put aside his love of Budweiser and actually seems interested in trying different types of beer.

So I'm torn between getting him a "Beer of the Month" membership (he'd get a six-pack every month) or getting him a home brewing set. The Beer of the Month is pricey (the nice one I'm looking at is 38 a month!) and the brewing set would be a couple hundred up front plus the additional as needed for him to replenish his stocks and for the bottles.

“Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it's at the end of your arm. As you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.” (Audrey Hepburn)

The amount of free time he has is a big factor. Personally, I would prefer the beer of the month since I know I would not have time for the care and feeding of the brewing equipment. But, is that $38 a month for one 6 pack?

By the way, I must commend you on your gift ideas! Either is much better than socks.

We own a home brewing kit (the nicer, more expensive kind lol) and it IS a lot of work and time. But it's fun to have a beer to call your own, make original labels, etc. But it does depend of how much free time you have to put in to making the beer (one day of brewing, then remembering to monitor it, bottling, etc).

I agree with you, the time is my big concern, especially since we agreed he's going to be a full-time student and not work and he's already got an X-Box to distract him!

I'm leaning towards the beer of the month. It's 23 and SH brings it to 38! But I do like the guy a little bit so he may get lucky. I'll definitely win the "best present" this year :P (He won last year)

@Tennyson, that looks really interesting! I'm guessing I can get filled kegs at a specialty store like a BevMo?

“Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it's at the end of your arm. As you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.” (Audrey Hepburn)

$38 a mo for a six pack is outrageous. I don't care what type of beer is in it. Since you kinda like this guy ' just make your own beer of the month club and just pick him up a different 6 pack or case and "deliver" it monthly yourself. If you use your imagination, I am sure he will forget all about that Xbox when his beer of the month shows up....

@Tennyson, that looks really interesting! I'm guessing I can get filled kegs at a specialty store like a BevMo?

Any beverage center has kegs. Domestic beers (Bud, Miller, Coors,etc.) come in quarter kegs. About $50. They come in halves as well. Imported beers (Heineken, Beck's,etc.) only come in half kegs. Nobody has ever given me an explanation why. My beer dist. delivers it and hooks it up to the tap. Best retirement present I ever got.
$38 per month for a six pack is nuts. $12 more and you get a quarter keg of a domestic beer. Plus some of those beer of the month are God awful. You can even serve it to company.

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